1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game program, and in particular to a game program for causing a computer to implement a game that displays a rotatable character on a touch panel type of monitor. In addition, the present invention relates to a game device and a game method that is implemented by this game program.
2. Background Information
A variety of analog type games have been proposed in the past. One representative analog type game is a baseball board. With a baseball board, recessed portions are formed in the defensive position of each fielder (except for the pitcher) and the position of the outfield fence. The recessed portions of the defensive positions correspond to outs. Each of the plurality of recessed portions is arranged at a predetermined distance from each other along the fence position of the outfield. Each of the plurality of these recessed portions corresponds to any one of an out, a hit, a double, a triple, and a home run. A ball accommodating portion that can accommodate a plurality of metal balls is formed in the pitcher defensive position. The balls accommodated in the ball accommodating portion will be dispatched to the recessed portion of the catcher position by a player pulling out a lever arranged on the back side of the baseball board. A rotatable metal bat is arranged in the batter position. The tip of the bat is rotatably urged around the base end thereof from the catcher side to the pitcher side. If the player presses a cylindrical button on the surface of the board while the bat is engaged with a protrusion arranged on the catcher side, the protrusion will move below the board surface. When this occurs, the bat will rotate from the catcher side to the pitcher side.
With this type of baseball board, the balls accommodated in the ball accommodating portion will be dispatched from the pitcher side to the catcher side by the player on defense operating the lever. Here, the player at bat can hit a dispatched ball with the bat by pushing the cylindrical button. Then, when a ball that has been hit by the bat has been accommodated in a recessed portion, and an out, hit, double, triple, and a home run will be determined. For example, if a ball is accommodated in the recessed portion of the defensive position of a fielder it will be an out, and if a ball is accommodated in one of the plurality of recessed portions of the fence portion of the outfield, it will be an out, hit, double, triple or home run.
In accordance with the advances in video games in recent years, there have been attempts at bringing back analog games as video games. For example, if an analog game such as a baseball board is to be brought back as a video game, each fielder character will be displayed in the defensive positions of each fielder. If a ball is caught by a fielder character, it will be determined that the batter is out. In addition, a plurality of square regions that correspond to an out, a hit, a double, a triple, and a home run will be displayed at predetermined intervals along the fence at the fence positions in the outfield. If the ball character arrives at one of the plurality of these square regions, it will be determined that the hitter has obtained an out, a hit, a double, a triple, or a home run. Furthermore, a bat character will be displayed in the batter position.
Next, by assigning a function corresponding to the lever operation in a baseball board to a first button, the ball character from the pitcher character will be dispatched when the first button is pushed. Note that the selection of ball type can be performed prior to ball dispatch by means of a second button. In addition, the speed of the ball can be changed by continuously pushing the first button after ball dispatch. Then, by assigning a function that corresponds to the cylindrical button in the baseball board to a third button, the bat character will be swung when the third button is pushed.
If this is done, an analog game like the baseball board can be reproduced as a video game. In particular, when a player is playing defense, the type of ball to be thrown can be selected and the speed of the ball can be changed with the various buttons. Because of this, the player can dispatch the ball character from the pitcher character in various ways. However, if a player is playing offense, only the third button will be pushed in order to swing the bat character. Thus, if the player is playing offense, the player may not have the pleasure he or she feels when playing defense.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need to prevent the loss of pleasure when rotating a character. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.